Research focusses on what makes men and women thrive in the workplace

The first major study linking personal resilience, gender and career success will help determine how and why some men and women get to the top.

Much work has been done on the subject of resilience, but there is scant evidence available on whether resilient men and women behave in the same way regarding situations and scenarios, from living and working through a large scale economic crisis to everyday office politics or family issues.

Following interviews with a number of respected business leaders providing insight into the issue, a survey is to be carried out by Sarah Bond of for business sake in partnership with Dr. Gillian Shapiro of Shapiro Consulting. This will seek the views of as many women and men as possible – aiming for at least 1,000 respondents – on the importance of resilience in the workplace.

The poll, sponsored by Nationwide Building Society and Vodafone, will be used to develop insights which will in turn help inform UK employers about how to better enable women and men to reach their full potential.

People are being encouraged to fill out the survey, which closes on Friday, 25th April. It will ask a number of questions, including:

How much difference does resilience really make to women’s career success?

How is career resilience defined for women and men?

What helps successful career women and men develop their resilience?

How does the resilience of women at the top compare to and differ from that of men?

What is the role of the organisation in building women’s resilience?

Sarah Bond and Dr. Gillian Shapiro said:

“We talk a lot of resilience as a health and well-being issue but little work has been done on the role of resilience in getting to the top of organisations. We simply don’t know why, if, or how men and women are different in this respect. Hearing from as many men and women as possible through our survey will make a huge contribution to answering these questions. What we do know, from speaking with business leaders, is that resilience is crucial to success. This research aims to create a greater awareness of the importance of resilience to career success and identify the practical actions women in particular – and the organisations that employ them – can take to build resilience and progress to the top.”

Keith Astill, HR Director at Nationwide, said:

“It seems certain that those who make it to the top of organisations, and stay there, are extraordinarily resilient and likely share a number of characteristics. As an employer that focuses on developing talent from within, irrespective of background, we are really looking forward to how we can use the research to better understand how to enable women, and men, to reach their full potential.”

Sharon Kyle, Group Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Vodafone, said:

“Resilience is unarguably a quality that is key to leadership and career success particularly in a business sector where change is fast and constant. However anecdotal evidence within Vodafone suggests the need for resilience is something more overtly cited among our female talent. This research will help us better understand if and why there are gender differences in resilience, and what we can do to ensure both men and women are a successful as they can be in their careers.”

The survey can be found here. Twitter users can follow, and mention, the #resilientcareers and #resilientsuccess hashtags.